Thanks, Dr Sarah Verghis and Smeagol for the letters.

Abraham is indeed the patriarch of the Jews but he is also the patriarch of the Muslims, as in Quranic Muslims. In the Quran, it is stated that Abraham was a Muslim.

Islam is not the name of a religion founded by Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad merely restored Islam to the world. Islam existed before Muhammad. Islam is an Arabic word that means Worship The One God.

Adam is the founder of Proto-Islam, the informal Islam which we are all born with. When Abraham came, Proto-Islam became two, namely Universal Monotheism (Hinduism) which is described in the Quran as the Sabaean faith, and Abrahamic Islam, the religion of Abraham.

Abraham acknowledged both Abrahamic Islam and Universal Monotheism as valid and correct.

Abraham, also called the Friend of God, was the prophet who received the formal Islam from God. This formal Islam, later revived by Muhammad, was a distinct community, with its mission of doing good to the ends of the Earth.

Abraham was a Semite. Arab in Arabic history is taken to mean all Semites, except the Jews, who are the descendants of Jacob, one of the grandsons of Abraham. In Western history, Arab is taken to mean only the Bedouins, the Peninsular Arabs, descendants of Prophet Ismail, son of Abraham.

The Jews or Israelites and their faith Judaism - a faith that Islam acknowledges and respects, just as it respects Christianity and the faiths derived from Hinduism/Universal Monotheism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Sikhism) - come from Jacob.

There is no such thing as an older faith being more pure or authentic than those after it.What I am stating is that there is a big misconception in the non-Muslim world that Islam is a relatively young faith that took ideas from Judaism and Christianity, something that the Western scholars often mention in their writings.

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have shared traditions since their main prophets are Semitic, and none borrowed from the other. All come from the same source, and that is the same source which produced Hinduism (including Zoroastrianism and Jainism which are sometimes lumped under Hinduism), Buddhism and Sikhism.

That source is Proto-Islam, Original Universal Monotheism, Adamic Monotheism - whatever name you may call it.